26 lines
1.5 KiB
Plaintext
26 lines
1.5 KiB
Plaintext
droid
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n. [from android , SF terminology for a humanoid robot of essentially
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biological (as opposed to mechanical/electronic) construction] A person
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(esp. a low-level bureaucrat or service-business employee) exhibiting most
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of the following characteristics: (a) naive trust in the wisdom of the
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parent organization or the system ; (b) a blind-faith propensity to believe
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obvious nonsense emitted by authority figures (or computers!); (c) a
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rule-governed mentality, one unwilling or unable to look beyond the letter
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of the law in exceptional situations; (d) a paralyzing fear of official
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reprimand or worse if Procedures are not followed No Matter What; and (e) no
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interest in doing anything above or beyond the call of a very
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narrowly-interpreted duty, or in particular in fixing that which is broken;
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an It's not my job, man attitude. Typical droid positions include
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supermarket checkout assistant and bank clerk; the syndrome is also endemic
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in low-level government employees. The implication is that the rules and
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official procedures constitute software that the droid is executing;
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problems arise when the software has not been properly debugged. The term
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droid mentality is also used to describe the mindset behind this behavior.
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Compare suit , marketroid ; see -oid. In England there is equivalent
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mainstream slang; a jobsworth is an obstructive, rule-following bureaucrat,
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often of the uniformed or suited variety. Named for the habit of denying a
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reasonable request by sucking his teeth and saying Oh no, guv, sorry I can't
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help you: that's more than my job's worth.
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